January 26, (THEWILL) – A human rights organisation, the Black Youth Vanguard (BYV), has urged Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu to ignore detractors who never see anything commendable in the activities of the government, saying, listening to them could detract him from the good works he has been doing since he became governor in 2019.
Convener of the group, Comrade James Adeyemi, in a communiqué he signed after his group’s monthly meeting on Tuesday, said, in democracy, several armchair critics would want to be noticed and recognised as stakeholders, frowning however over the way some of them go about their antics of detraction and destruction.
According to the communiqué, the best way to handle such detractors is to ignore them because giving them undue attention could derail the smooth operation of the administration that people are already enjoying and appreciating, urging the governor not to allow some bloody irritants to bother him.
Adeyemi, who disclosed to the journalists at the venue of their meeting in Ikeja that the meeting’s agenda was to commend the governor over his latest efforts at upgrading the rail transportation sector by acquiring more rail cars from abroad, said, the meeting was embarrassed to hear a report that some destructive critics are already in their element of not seeing anything good in any administration.
“We are not surprised and we are not bothered. They are not strangers to us. We know them very well. And at the appropriate time, we would expose them and their pay masters to the public, unless they stop their pull-him-down antics. We can assure them that, very soon, they would be put in their proper place through legally and constitutionally acceptable means.
“Though, we are not unmindful of the fact that criticism and freedom of speech are permissible in democracy, what we are not comfortable with is when the criticism is aimed at derailing the government, rather than guide it to the right path. We should all know that the art of state building is a collective responsibility of all and not the exclusive duty of the government alone. So, we advise all, including the armchair critics, to come on board with the rest of the people to support the Sanwo-Olu’s administration to succeed,” The communiqué pledged.
It could be recalled that the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Gbenga Omotosho sometimes ago tweeted that Governor Sanwo-Olu embarked on “a tour of high speed train manufacturers, Talgo Incorporated Company for the acquisition of two set of brand new 10-Car Metro train for Lagos rail project in Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA.”
No sooner the message went viral than a lot of people started expressing joy and commending the governor for doing well.
However, a handful of critics also expressed their views on the project, which this group considered too harsh, uninformed and undiplomatic.
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
